Switzerland here we come!

life

Team Tolan is soon to be on the loose. Tomorrow bright and early we embark for our first official family holiday. We’ve visited family several times, but this is the first time we are off for pure relaxation. Ahhhh….

This time tomorrow we’ll be safely tucked into our chalet in Verbier. Fingers crossed we are well and have no new molars for the next week. Just in case, we are armed with drugs, teething gel, drugs, vapor rub, drugs, and anything else we can legally get across the Swiss border.

The last time I skied was pre-baby and I was marginally better than the three year olds in ski school on their very first day. By the second day, they could ski circles around me.

Darragh, on the other hand, is turning into a pro! He flies down the mountain like a gazelle, throws himself down into a rugby fall when he gets to the end and comes up laughing.

Who’s the scaredy cat in our house?

Ava and Jake are a tad too young to hit the slopes, so we’ve booked an English nanny to keep them entertained. With any luck we’ll arrive to find supernanny waiting and come back with two toddlers who are sleeping through the night and not fighting over toys!

It’s 9pm and we have 8 hours before the taxi arrives. Three out of four of us are packed and the freezer is defrosting. Fingers crossed we have enough snacks and undergarments to get us through the next week.

Gorgeous scenery and fresh mountain air here we come!!!

Cabbin’ It

children

As we’ve decided to remain a one car family, we occassionaly have a transport challenge. Today was one of those days. Darragh was leaving at 7:00am for meeting in Cambridge. The creche opens at 7:30am.

Our options were:
– Drop the baba’s off at the door of the creche at 7:00 with their milk and snacks to keep them going until someone arrives.
– Have them walk 1.5 miles to the nursery
– Take a taxi

I was personally pulling for option one, but Ava & Jake were concerned that they would run out of snacks before the nursery staff arrived. We ended up going for option three.

We piled into the taxi at 7:20. I strapped Jake into a seatbelt and put Ava on my lap with a belt over both of us. It somehow always seems like an exciting little treat for all of us to be cuddled up in the back of the taxi as we roll through St. Albans. Jake kept looking up at me with his big brown eyes and smiling his special Jake smile that melts my heart. Ava was cuddled up to me rubbing my hand. We shared a special few minutes before going our separate ways for the day.

Before I knew it, we arrived at nursery. We all plopped out and walked inside.
Jake went straight to his room anticipating his toast and cereal while Ava and I struggled with her coat. We waved our goodbyes and I jumped back into the taxi to head home for a days work.

The life of a working Mum.

Trikes

Boring Life, children

This weekend we went shopping for ski gear for the baba’s and ended up with trikes!!!

I happened like this:
We walked into a super warehouse of sporting equipment called Decathalon.
The first thing I spied from the door was a little blue and red trike with a parent handle. My eyes lit up! I grabbed Jake out of the stroller and plopped him into the trike. Huge smiles! He loved it!
We found a little pink one for Ava. She loved it!

My excitement was so overwhelming that I could not hold the camera still:

trikes trikes2

After a lovely jaunt around the store, we loaded ourselves and the trikes in the back of our SUV and headed home.

Once home, I assembled trike #1 with my 2 helpers eagerly handing me pieces and tripping over parts. We got pinkie’s together and off she went with Daddy – grinning from ear to ear as she rambled down our little cobblestone sidewalk.

Trike #2 was easier to assemble, although I had a very anxious little boy helping me. He would help for a few minutes, then spend a few minutes seeing if he could knock Ava off hers so he could ride it.

At last, both trikes were together.

The whole family screeching down our little road!

It’s so fun to see the babies pure delight with the outdoors and fascination with these new wheeled toys. I’ve actually raced home from work this week in anticipation of pushing the baba’s in their new toys.

I’m pretty sure that I am more excited about the trikes than my toddlers.
I love being able to re-live childhood!

Date Night

life

For the second time in 2 months, Darragh and I had a date night last night!
Had anyone explained the concept of date night to me several years ago, I would have nodded at them encouragingly, but secretly felt them sad and pathetic.

I remember the days of anticipating a date for several days. Wondering if you would hit it off. Imagining him funny and interesting. Envisioning talking and laughing all night and hoping the date would go on forever.

I did anticipate this date for days as it’s a rare treat that we get out on our own. Although I think we were both secretly hoping we were safely home and tucked into our beds by 11:00. Which we were.

We went to a little Moroccan place near us called Little Marrakech. I had been wanting to go for ages so it was a real treat. It looks quite small from the outside, but once inside there was a lovely dining room and really quirky and cool bar. The food was delicious! Quite unusual, as I always find Moroccan food. I had a baby chicken stuffed with nutmeg cous cous. What I loved about it was the cous cous was so sweet I felt like I was having dinner and dessert all in one! Darragh had a tangine which he quite enjoyed as well.

As we are finishing dinner and looking at the time, we contemplate if it’s too early to go home. Thankfully, Darragh decides on a coffee which draws the time out another 20 minutes (whew). We then decide we are in ‘the zone’ now and can safely show our faces to the babysitter.

We meander home and gaze into all the pubs filled with revelers.
Several years ago, I could not have imagined these days of limited social life. Funny as it seems, I would not change it for the world!

Corner Shop

children, toddlers

Yesterday was a lovely, sunny day in the metropolis of St. Albans. The little ones were home sick due to a second night of projectile vomiting from our little princess. After breakfast, 10 espisodes of Little Einsteins, taking Ava’s baby for a walk, building with our blocks, a couple snacks, a jaunt in the back garden, reading books upstairs, lunch, a nice long nap, coloring, riding on the trike, emptying the contents of our school bags and Mummy’s handbag onto the floor, putting our coats and shoes on 13 times, playing with Rocket and the Little Einsteins characters, playing with the house, Noah’s arc and several toys that make lots of noises by pressing a multitude of buttons……we ran out of things to do!

It was a gorgeous day and a perfect opportunity to practice our walking skills!
With our shoes, coats and hats firmly in place again – off we went.

The corner shop was our destination for our escapade as we needed a few items to keep us going. Out the door we went. First Jake holding one hand of mine and clinging to the side of the door for dear life. He plops his feet onto the ground outside. Then Ava, who was more apprehensive and preferred to be lifted out the door. Now outside the door, I had one on either side of me and we were off down the sidewalk.
We toddled to the edge of the road where they both clung onto my hand for dear life as the dropped one foot then the other over the big curb and down onto the road. Over the road we went. Up the curb and onto the other side. We made it about 3/4 of the way and Jake’s arms went up begging to be carried. I put Jake on my right hip and held onto Ava’s little hand with my left hand. About 20 more steps and Ava thrusts the arms up to be lifted. Jake goes down. Ava comes up. Another 20 steps and we were in the corner shop. Whew!

Inside the shop I grab a loaf of bread and hand it to Jake to carry. Fight ensues over who holds the bread. Jake wins and has a very firm grip on our now mashed bread. I grab tea lights and hand them to Ava. Another dispute over who holds the tealights. I grab a few more items and the process continues. At last we all have 2 items in our hands and we take off for the register to pay. Half way there I turn around to see 2 smiling toddlers proudly walking along and their prized posessions dropped all over the floor behind them. I go back and pickup the mashed bread, tealights, etc. We pay and get out the door.

The next 30 minutes follows this pattern:
– Jake and Ava are each holding my hand and walking happily
– Ava stops to pick at the mold in between the bricks in the sidewalk
– I stoop down to have a look with Ava and to encourage her to keep walking
– While we are looking at mold, Jake sees an interesting car that needs investigation and takes off
– As Ava is still engrossed in mold, I chase after Jake
– He starts banging on the car mirror which prompts me to pick him up
– A squabble ensues as the car mirror is much more interesting than walking home
– Ava loses interest in the mold and runs in the opposite direction of us towards someone’s front door
– With Jake in my arms, we go after Ava
– I put down Jake and grab Ava as she is going straight for a snail in the neighbors garden
– Jake is straight back to the car
– Ava is now going bananas as she does not understand why we cannot play with the snail she has newly befriended.

Essentially this up/down and toddling in opposite directions continues until we make it to the front door. After trying desperately to escape, I get them both inside and shut the door. There were lingering tears but thankfully we did all survive and I am fortunate to be able to write this today!

Reliving this episode reaffirms my plot to convince hubby that reigns are not just for dogs!

Accessorize

children, life

I am absolutely loving that Ava is getting to stage where her hair is long enough for hair accessories. Not only does Mummy think that she looks adorable, but she loves wearing them! She has that “I feel like a Princess” look in her eye.

Aside from feeling great, it helps keep the curls under control. Don’t you think?
ava

We are use gallons of detangler to prevent dreadlocks and I’m amazed at how matted it gets after a good sleep. Even with her fine baby hair it’s already difficult to comb. I see product and hair accessories in our future in abundance!

Ava & I were loving her new look and for almost 3 weeks she sported a color coordinated hair clip.

This week, however, Jake was feeling left out.

While getting ready for nursery, he began trying to rip Ava’s clip from her hair. Once he got it out (including a couple fine little strands of blond curls), he tried to stick it in his hair. His placement was perfect as he knew to skew it to the side. I watched him struggle to put it in. He looked at me with those big “help me Mummy” eyes. I was paralyzed. I could not bring myself to help him!

My head was telling me “it’s not a big deal, he’s just a little guy experimenting”, but my heart was saying “Nooooo”.

I never thought I would be a mother who confined my children to stereotypical gender roles but something inside me felt like I needed to help protect his masculinity. Where do you draw the line between harmless innocent cross dressing and your little rugby player being mocked and ridiculed in nursery?

Glasses Again

Boring Life

I began my journey with eyewear when I was 5 years old! My little fro and brown rimmed 70’s glasses made me supermodel material at a young age.

The first experience I remember in my spectacled life is telling my 1st grade teacher that I had glasses and needed to wear them to see the board. How geeky! My mom must have made me do it.

I graduated to the big step of contact lenses at age 13. My grandma and I got them together and it was a momentous occasion.

Because I had bad astigmatism, I was forced to get gas permeable lenses. Essentially, these are an advanced version of hard contacts which wore colluses on my inner eyelids. This meant I walked around for the first couple weeks with my eyes popped so far open and desperately trying not to blink that I looked like a deer in the headlights.

Even more challenging was trying to ‘pop’ them out of my eyes. There was a special maneuver where I pulled the corner of my eye to force my eyelids to pop the lens out. I’m not sure if I can truly explain how difficult this is to master. The first night I popped the first lens out like a pro. I was a contact lens natural!

The second lens, however, was not so successful. After 2 hours of pulling, pushing and rubbing my eyes I was actually further from getting lens #2 out of my eye. By this time my eye was so swollen from the prodding and tears that it was barely open enough to do the ‘pop’. At one point, we were in the car with the ignition running and ready to depart for the ER.
I pleaded for one last attempt.
Thankfully, it worked!

After many years of contact lenses, many misguided pops leading to family members disassembling the bathroom sink (thanks Greg!), I made the huge leap to Lasik surgery.
My life was transformed!!
I could see the clock in the morning and the bottom of the shower.
I could sleep in for 5 extra minutes and go to bed 5 minutes later as I didn’t have lenses to deal with.
I didn’t have to worry about falling asleep on the couch and waking up with my lenses glued to my eyes from dryness.
There were no more tears streaming down my face when the wind blew or I went for a cycle.
I was a new woman!

Five years after Lasik, I’ve gone full circle. Glasses Again.

The frames are still brown but with anti-glare lenses and more up to date frames. Fortunately, I’m feeling much more stylish than my bespectacled fro days.

ghostframes_lupin1

The Madness

Boring Life

Since I’ve returned from maternity leave I’ve seen my daily commute as my ‘me time’. It’s a relaxing time of the day when my brain and my body is able to shut off. In the mornings, I use the journey to read a book. In the evenings I flip through the gossip pages of the free newspaper that’s thrown in front of your face at the entrance to every Underground and train station. On a good day I can even complete a couple of sudoko’s on the train. I love my me time!

Last week I peered over my free paper and this is what I saw from my perch at the top of the bus:

dsc00240_crop

Wall to wall cars.
Wall to wall buses.
Wall to wall people.
What sort of delusional state was I in to find this craziness peaceful and relaxing?

Apparently 1 million + people commute into London from outside the M25. These commuters on top of the 7.5 million people living in Greater London makes for absolute madness at 9am and 5pm. As of July 2007, Greater London surpassed Paris as the most populous municipality in the EU. Wow! This is a lot to take in for a Missouri girl!

I am so sorry that my little bubble has burst. I much preferred my dream state of a blissful daily journey to the new reality of the steel jungle that I’ll be facing next week!